Fast-food giant McDonald’s recently threatened to eliminate a health care policy used by 30,000 low-wage employees in order to get a waiver exempting the corporation from new regulations resulting from recently passed “health care reform.” McDonald’s insurer, BCS, claimed that the new rules would make the plan unaffordable. McDonald’s has since been granted the waiver.
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McDonald’s workers pay $700-1700 |
Employees who sign up for the benefits in question pay between $700 and $1,700 per year, not an insignificant amount when one considers the fact that the median hourly wage for a McDonald’s worker is around $7.50. In return they receive a meager $2,000 to $10,000 maximum in health insurance benefits.
These types of plans are referred to as “mini-med,” and cover only the cost of the most basic medical attention. Sabrina Corlette of the Georgetown University Health Policy Institute says of mini-med plans: “It’s not really insurance the way most people think of insurance. … [I]f you had a health condition or needed real care, you would find them woefully inadequate.” (PBS.org, Oct. 1) One in five corporations with more than 20,000 employees offers these shockingly inadequate plans.
Under the recently passed health insurance act, insurance providers must spend 80 to 85 percent of premiums on medical care, which undercuts exorbitant executive salaries and profits and essentially caps non-medical expenses.
However, the National Association of State Insurance Commissioners, which is responsible for implementing the reforms, can grant waivers to companies whenever it sees fit. To make matters even worse, under the new law, assistance for some of the uninsured will not be available until 2014.
Right-wing news outlets have attempted to paint the new law’s spending requirements and their impact on mini-med and similar plans as an example of the unintended consequences of an intrusive government. This argument, ironically coming in many cases from those who applauded the massive bailouts of banks and other capitalist enterprises, is a complete distortion. The Obama administration’s “reforms” are in fact aimed at dampening public outrage while doing as little harm to big business interests as possible and in fact benefiting the for-profit health insurance companies by expanding their customer base.
The real, fundamental problem is that in a capitalist society health care is treated as a commodity. Insurance corporations do not provide coverage in order to help the sick, but rather to make a profit. To do this, they set prices at outrageous levels and use any excuse imaginable to deny coverage.
The law of capitalist competition pushes enterprises to maximize return on capital. A government-imposed cap on profits will naturally push capitalists to either work around regulations or invest capital elsewhere. The mini-med plans are a perfect example: leave our profit rate alone, or these plans will cease to exist. The core problem is not insufficient government regulation; it is for-profit, private ownership of the health care system. The problem is capitalism.
A socialized health care system would eliminate capitalist competition and the profit motive. Only then can human needs be prioritized.
